With the highest recorded turnout in election history, incumbent
Jared Fox was elected to the position of Graduate Student
Association president on Wednesday night as the GSA Elections Board
announced voting results.
The announcement took place in Kerckhoff Hall 417 after a
meeting to discuss complaints brought about by candidates.
Fox, a member of the GSA Experience slate, garnered 60.8 percent
of the vote, winning by a margin of 465 votes.
In total, 22.77 percent of the graduate student body voted in
this year’s election, an all-time high.
In the contest for vice president of external affairs, Cindy
Mosqueda, a candidate with the Graduates Representing Educating
Advocating Transforming, or GREAT, slate, won by a margin of 251
votes, taking in 56.2 percent of the votes.
For the position of vice president of internal affairs, GSA
Experience candidate John Marston was elected with a total of 4,448
votes.
Scott Friedman, a candidate with the GSA Experience slate, was
elected to the position of vice president of academic affairs by a
margin of 410 votes, taking in 59.1 percent of the votes.
“I’m very happy for the candidates on my slate. …
The voters chose good leaders to lead them next year,” Fox
said.
Members of the GREAT slate did not share the same sentiment.
“(Today’s meeting) is just another reflection of the
bias that the election board has had this entire year in favor of
the GSA Experience slate,” said Anita Garcia, presidential
candidate running with the GREAT slate.
Members of GREAT brought forward several complaints regarding
both the conduct of the GSA Experience slate and the Elections
Board during Thursday’s meeting.
One such complaint was an allegation that GSA Experience
candidate Marston was ineligible for candidacy due to his former
status as a voting member on the Elections Board as of Feb. 10,
2005.
GREAT members cited a section of the GSA Elections Code that
states, “Any members of the GSA Elections Board or any of its
committees shall be ineligible from becoming candidate for election
to any office of the GSA in that year,” though it is unclear
as to whether Marston’s resignation from the board two days
prior to filing for candidacy bound him to this policy.
The board will hold a meeting next Tuesday to review and
possibly revise the Elections Code for next year’s
elections.
The other aspect of the election, the passage of the SAFE
referendum, would gradually raise the current annual fee students
pay toward the Associated Students UCLA from $7.50 to $55.50 over
the next five years.
But in order for SAFE to be implemented across the university,
undergraduates must also approve it in the undergraduate elections,
which end tonight at 7 p.m.
According to conditions set by the chancellor, the approval rate
needs to be over 50 percent with at least 20 percent voter turnout,
but members of the ASUCLA Board of Directors are confident the
referendum will pass among undergraduates based on the results of
the graduate elections.
“Undergraduates are very responsible,” said Julie
Orf, a graduate representative on the ASUCLA Board of Directors.
“I know they’ll do the right thing.”
With reports from Harold Lee, Bruin staff.